Jun 17, 2008

CHERRY

Cherry is a Alak variant. First the rules of Alak:

This game is played on a 1-D line. Black and white alternate in placing single stones on a line of n points. If placing a stone thereby removes all the go-liberties of any group of stones of the opposite color, those stones are immediately removed. It is illegal to place a stone where one was just removed. Placing is compulsory if legal, and the game ends when the player having the move cannot legally place anywhere. The winner is the player with the most stones on the board at game end.
Cherry (invented by Bill Taylor, 2008) is played on a semi-infinite line segment where the first cell is marked (*):

* . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...

Wins the player the occupies the first cell with a friendly piece that cannot be captured by the adversary in the next move.

A sample game:

* . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...
* . x . . . . . . . . . . . ...
* o x . . . . . . . . . . . ...
x . x . . . . . . . . . . . ...

X wins because O cannot drop into the 2nd cell right now.

4 comments:

Zandor said...

This game cannot be win. You can only win if your opponent plays on cell 2, and you can only win with your next move. But the only way to force your opponent to play on cell 2 is to play on cell 1. But this move restrict your win in the next move.

Simple strategy to never lose: If your opponent has a stone on cell 1 play the leftmost free cell to capture it. Otherwise NEVER play on cell 2.

João Neto said...

But using your strategy, you could have this game (you are x and : means just captured)

o . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...
: x . . . . . . . . . . . . ...
* x o . . . . . . . . . . . ...
* x o . . . x . . . . . . . ...
o : o . . . . . . . . . . . ...

which is a win, since "It is illegal to place a stone where one was just removed"

Zandor said...

Oh, you're right. And i overlooked that the rule is not the same as in Go. It also applies if more than one stone is captured.

But nevertheless I think that the game looks like a draw. Ever played this game?

João Neto said...

I played half a dozen fast games face to face and all ended. But that does not mean, of course, that it could be drawish. It was not tested enough.